bryanecho

I’ve been playing for a year, I started over the holiday season last year. My roommate had played before and got back into and I was looking for something to do.

From the first few minutes it was fun. It was simple to run around killing boars and picking stuff up. The quests seemed easy and I enjoyed it immediately. Then starting running dungeons and that was a thrill. My roommate and I joined a leveling guild called The Skull Squadron. We had a great tabard and everyone was trying to push to get to 70. At first it was great trying to get several levels in a day. Then they started getting slower. A level a day turned into a grind.

Eventually the skull squadron fell apart. But I got my shadow priest to 70 and started raiding. I got to see Karazhan. The raiding nights were awesome at first but it takes sooo much time.

I’ve experienced the new Wrath of the Lich King expansion and leveled to 80. My roommate is in a raiding guild with me. We’re gearing up and feeling the race again. And I just don’t want to do it.

The people in our guild are great and I can’t imagine a group of better people to raid with.

But I’m not emotionally attached to any of them. I’m not close to the raid leader or the epic healers that keep us alive. I listen in vent to everyone discuss politics or football and I have nothing to say. Socially its not fulfilling. There are so many people I’ve talked to or run an instance with that I don’t even remember their names the next day.

So I deleted the game from my hard drive and I’m cancelling my subscription. I don’t know how to tell anyone that I quit. Real life friends aren’t aware of the time I invested in the game. And my roommate doesn’t understand what I have to complain about. My mom also plays and its still new and fresh to her so she really doesn’t relate.

I know I’ve chosen WoW over going out. I’ve become pretty lazy. I don’t run like I used to. My dog doesn’t get as many walks. I haven’t been anywhere interesting in a while. I’ve just had enough.

I know this is long, but after reading all the great discussions I felt I owed something in return.
Thanks everyone,
~Bryan

I recently had absinthe when I was in Berlin. We stopped at an absinthe bar because I’d been curious about it.

At the suggestion of some Englishmen at the bar we started with mixed drinks, Absinthe and Red Bull. It was sweet so the absinthe wasn’t obvious.

Then we started ordering from the absinthe menu. The menu explained how to prepare it. The ritual of the spoon and the sugar cube really added the vibe. The absinthe was bitter and tasted like medicine.

The affect it had on me was really strange. I didn’t feel drunk but I’d had a lot of alcohol. It felt more like I was stoned. It also made me very creative. I took some really cool pictures and I was smiling a lot. And I felt pretty good the next day.

I later bought a bottle at the Schnapps Museum in Vienna but it was confiscated at customs. They gave me a hard time about it and poured it out after selecting me to randomly search. They mentioned a lot about it being a hallucinagenic (I didn’t experience that). In europe it is regulated for the amount of wormwood which makes a difference.

Two weeks ago was the first night of my vacation to europe. I arrived in Berlin saturday morning after traveling all day and night from Phoenix, Arizona.

I met everyone in our tour, had a great dinner and I was determined to experience a Saturday night in Berlin. We ended up at a club called White Trash Fast Food. The dance floor was in the basement. It was a dark smokey cave. Industrial music was blasting and the dancing was aggressive. I was in heaven. We danced for a while and then an amazing band called Smatka played.

By the time they were done I was covered in sweat. I was exhausted from traveling, I rarely sleep on airplanes.

We walked out and it was raining. It was pouring down rain. We caught a taxi immediately back to the Hotel. Before going in I danced in the rain. I was euphoric from the wonderful night. (I love Berlin!) I was exhausted and drained but the rain felt invigorating.

(The picture is us in the hotel elevator at the end of the night)